𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐃─𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

three.

"And then we were right outside like this ─" JJ paused for a moment to press himself against the brick of the chimney. "─ And then all we hear is just 'BAM!' 'BAM!" BAM!' Knocking paint off the wall, G! From the inside, all right? And I'm just looking at him like ─ wait first off," He broke off again, hurrying toward his audience to ruffle his hair. 

Charlotte shied away as pieces of something began to fall from his head. "What is that?" She mumbled, scrunching up her face. 

"That's dandruff." Kie muttered. "That's disgusting."

Pope shoved JJ away from him. "Okay. Thank you."

"Look at all that. All right?" JJ pointed to the ground. "That's paint. At that point, I was just like... I'm waiting for death."

Pope dropped his head into his hands, pushing the butt of his palm into his eyes. "Okay. Okay. So you saw the guys who shot at us, right?"

"Yeah."

"Did you ─ did you get a good description of them. What did they look like? Anything we can bring to a police report."

JJ stared out of the screen for a minute before looking back to them. "Burly."

Charlotte bit the inside of her lip as she rose her brows. "Burly...?"

"Yeah. You know?"

Kie dropped her head. "That's not very helpful."

"Okay, well, no, like the type of guy at my dad's garage. I mean, you guys know he made cargo hides for drug smugglers."

"Yes. We know." Kie assured. 

"Well then, I can tell you with full confidence, these boys, these killers..." He took a draw of his vape. "They're square groupers."

"They're square groupers?" Pope repeated. "Like Narcos square grouper? Like Pablo Escobar square grouper?"

JJ nodded as if this was the most nonchalant occurrence. "Yeah, man."

"You guys," Kiara interrupted. "Not everything is a Kingpin movie."

"Okay, hold on." Charlotte interrupted, looking between the four younger teens. "So you guys are sure that these two were after you yesterday? The same guys that just attacked Miss. Lana were after you?"

JJ gave her an exasperated look. "They were literally shooting at us, Charley. Kind of hard to miss."

She held her hands up in surrender as Pope leaned forward, his eyes focused on JJ. "I just need to know what these square groupers looked like. Because apparently you don't know."

JJ took another hit. "Alright, I wasn't taking little mental polaroids the whole time, okay? I was under duress! But, I can tell you that by the way Miss. Lana was screaming, that these guys are serious, serious hombres, man."

Charlotte leaned further back into the couch. "Guys, I've got to be honest, this shit is getting a bit too intense for me. I was under the impression that this was going to be a harmless mystery. Not a suicide mission."

"Join the club." Pope muttered, letting out a deep sigh. 

"Okay, it's a heavy vibe right now." JJ agreed. "I'm not liking this very much."